System for tracking and identifying vehicles and pedestrians

ABSTRACT

A system and method for monitoring locating people and vehicles based upon information is collected by a wide array of sensors already included in modern motor vehicles. Also included is a system of locating people and vehicles by aggregating data collected by an array of vehicles.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/421,022 having a filing date of Nov. 11, 2016 which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth.

BACKGROUND

There are currently an estimated 260 million cars in the United States that drive annually a total of 3.2 trillion miles. Each modern car has upwards of 200 sensors. As a point of reference, the Sojourner Rover of the Mars Pathfinder mission had only 12 sensors, traveled a distance of just over 100 meters mapping the Martian surface, and generated 2.3 billion bits of information including 16,500 pictures and made 8.5 million measurements. Therefore, there is an unrealized potential to utilize the over 200 sensors on the 260 million cars to collect detailed information about our home planet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description, given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is an example system that uses a network of vehicles to locate people and vehicles.

FIG. 2 is a communication diagram for a vehicle.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the vehicle computer.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the database server.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of the “Bubbles of Vision” of a vehicle.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of the interaction of the “Bubbles of Vision” of two vehicles.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a process for locating a vehicle.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a process for locating a person.

FIG. 9 is a block for a server to locate a person or a vehicle.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of people and vehicles in the “Bubble of Vision”.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A wide array of sensors is required for the modern operation of a motor vehicle. These sensors are required for the vehicle to navigate, avoid collisions with other cars, and adjust the operating parameters of the drive systems. However, the data collected by these sensors is confined to the vehicle, is ephemeral, and is only used locally in the vehicle. The present disclosure provides a system which utilizes the data already being collected by the motor vehicle to convert the motor vehicle into a “rolling laboratory” for locating pedestrians and vehicles. Further, the system aggregates the data collected from a plurality of vehicles so the locations of vehicles and individuals can be monitored over an extended period of time.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) automate and enhance the safety system of a vehicle and provide a more pleasurable driving experience. Examples of ADAS systems currently available include Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Departure Warning Systems, Blind Spot Detectors, and Hill Decent Control. In order to implement these systems, a wide array of sensors is required.

In the United States, there are numerous emergency alerts that disseminate via commercial radio stations, Internet radio, satellite radio, television stations, and cable TV by the Emergency Alert System. One of these alerts is an Amber alert. Amber alerts are issued for child abductions. In order to issue an Amber alert, law enforcement must determine that four criteria are met: (1) law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place; (2) the child must be at risk of serious injury or death; (3) there must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor's vehicle to issue an alert; and (4) the child must be under 18 years of age. Accordingly, when an Amber alert is issued, information is either known about (a) the child, (b) the abductor or (c) the abductor's vehicle.

The present scheme uses a network of cars equipped with an ADAS system that are constantly collecting data about the environment surrounding the vehicle to locate the child, the abductor, and the abductor's vehicle. This collected information is then analyzed by a vehicle computer. The vehicle computer then determines if the child, the abductor, or the abductor's vehicle is contained within the collected information. Then, based on the determination, the vehicle computer may transmit data to a server and contact emergency service officials.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example system practicing the method for locating the child, the abductor, or the abductor's vehicle. In the system, an array of vehicles 110A . . . 110B may be communicatively coupled to a database server 400 and be connected to the Internet 100 via a wireless channel 105. The wireless communication channels 105 may be of the form of any wireless communication mechanism such as LTE, 3G, WiMax etc.

Each vehicle in the array of vehicles 110A . . . 110B may contain a vehicle computer (VC) 300 that is communicatively coupled to a plurality of sensors 150. The sensors 150 may include thermal imagers, LIDAR, radar, ultrasonic, and high definition (HD) cameras. In addition, sensors 150 may also include air quality, temperature, radiation, magnetic field, and pressure that are used to monitor various systems of the vehicle.

Both the array of vehicles 110A . . . 110B and the database server 400 may communicate with emergency services providers 130 over the Internet. The emergency services providers 130 may include fire, police or medical services.

The communicative connections of the VC 300 are graphically shown in FIG. 2. The VC 300 is communicatively coupled to a user interface 230. The VC 300 may instruct the user interface 230 to display information stored in the memory 310 or storage 320 of the VC 300. In addition, the VC 300 may instruct the user interface 230 to display alert messages. The user interface 230 may include a touch screen that enables the user to input information to the VC 300. The user interface 230 may be a discrete device or integrated into an existing vehicle entertainment or navigation system.

The VC 300 may also be able to communicate with the Internet 100 via a wireless communication channel 105. A database server 400 is also connected to the Internet 100 via communication channel 125. It should be understood that the Internet 100 may represent any network connection between respective components.

The VC 300 is also communicatively coupled to a real time communication interface 250. The real time communication interface 250 enables the VC 300 to access the Internet 100 over wireless communication channel 105. This enables the VC 300 to store and retrieve information stored in database server 400 in real time. The real time communication interface 250 may include one or more antennas, receiving circuits, and transmitting circuits. The wireless communication channel 105 provides near real time communication of the VC 300 to the database while the vehicle is in motion.

Additionally, the VC 300 may communicate with the Internet 100 through short range wireless interface 260 over wireless communication channel 290 via an access point 270. Wireless channel 290 may be 802.11 (WiFi), 802.15 (Bluetooth) or any similar technology. Access point 270 may be integrated in the charging unit of an electric vehicle, located at a gas refueling station, or be located in an owner's garage. The wireless channel 290 allows the VC 300 to quickly and cheaply transmit large amounts of data when the vehicle is not in motion and real time data transmission is not required.

When the VC 300 detects that the short range wireless interface 260 is connected to the Internet 100, the VC 300 transmits the data stored in storage 320 to the database 1100 over short range wireless channel 290. The VC 300 may then delete the data stored in storage 320.

The VC 300 may also be communicatively linked to a geo locating system 240. The geo locating system 240 is able to determine the location of the vehicle 110 based on a locating standard such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) or Galileo.

The VC 300 may also be communicatively linked to the plurality of sensors 150. The plurality of sensors may include one or more thermal imager 210 and one or more high definition camera 220. The thermal imager 210 may include any form of thermographic cameras such as a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera. The high definition cameras 220 may include any form of digital imaging device that captures images in the visible light spectrum.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of the VC 300. The VC 300 includes an Input/Output interface 330. The Input/Output interface 330 may facilitate communication of data with the plurality of sensors 150, user interface 230, geo locating system 240, real time communication interface 250 and short range wireless interface 260. The VC 300 also includes a processor 330 that is communicatively linked to the Input/Output interface 330, the memory 310 and the storage 320. The storage 320 may be a hard disk drive, solid state drive or any similar technology for the nonvolatile storage and retrieval of data.

FIG. 4 depicts the components of the database server 400. The database server 400 may include a memory 410, a communication interface 430, storage 420, and a processor 440. The processor 440 is able to transmit and receive information from the Internet 100 via the communication interface 430. In addition, the processor 440 is able to store data received by the communication 430.

FIG. 5 depicts various “Bubbles of Vision” associated with the different sensors 150. Each bubble graphically represents a range of a corresponding sensor. For example, certain sensors have a higher resolution and limited sensing distance 535 from the vehicle 110. Other sensors have a much longer sensing range but have lower resolution 515. Yet other sensors operate in a medium sensing distance and resolution 525. Although only 3 discrete Bubbles are shown, a person of ordinary skill would understand that any number of layers can be included. Further, the Bubbles are shown depicted as oval merely for convenience and the sensors 150 may produce sensing ranges of any shape.

FIG. 6 depicts the interaction of the “Bubbles of Vision” associated with two different vehicles 610A and 610B. Each vehicle has an associated inner Bubble of Vision 635A and 335B, outer Bubble of Vision 615A and 615B, and intermediate Bubble of Vision 625A and 625B. As a result of the overlapping Bubble of Vision, multiple views and prospective of an object can be measured. The multiple views and prospective of the same object may be used to further identify the object or to calibrate the sensors on a particular vehicle relative to another vehicle.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram for a method of locating a vehicle. A plurality of images is acquired 705 from the sensors 150. The plurality of images are then analyzed 710 to determine if the plurality of images contain another vehicle. If the plurality of images are determined to not contain another vehicle, no further processing is required 715 and the plurality of images are saved to the storage 320. If the plurality of images are determined to contain another vehicle, it is determined if an active emergency alert 720 has been received from the emergency services provider 130 that identifies a vehicle. The active emergency alert may be received over the real time communication channel 105 or the short range communication channel 290. In addition, the active emergency alert may be directly received by the vehicle or indirectly received via database server 400. If there is not an active emergency alert that identifies a vehicle, no further processing is required 715 and the plurality of images are saved to the storage 320. If there is an active emergency alert that specifies a particular vehicle, a coarse analysis of the plurality of images is performed 725 to determine if the vehicle contained in the images matches the vehicle specified in the active emergency alert.

Methods for performing a coarse analysis of a plurality of images to identify a particular vehicle are known in the art and include U.S. Pat. No. 6,747,687 to Alves for “System for recognizing the same vehicle at different times and places”, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

For example, the active emergency alert may specify a 2014 Silver Toyota Camry. The coarse analysis may generate a match for a 2012 White Toyota Camry vehicle or a 2015 Silver Honda Civic. If the coarse analysis does not match the vehicle specified in the active alert, no further processing is required 715 and the plurality of images are saved to the storage 320. If the coarse analysis does match the vehicle specified in the active alert, the plurality of images are transmitted 730 to the database server 400 over the real time wireless channel 105 for additional analysis. In addition to the plurality of images, the transmitted data may include geo location data and data from any of the sensors 150. Additionally, the plurality of images may be directly transmitted to the emergency services provider 130 over the real time communication channel 105.

FIG. 8 shows a block diagram for a method of locating a person. A plurality of images is acquired 805 from the sensors 150. The plurality of images are then analyzed 810 to determine if the plurality of images contain a person. The person may be a pedestrian, operating of another vehicle, or a passenger in another vehicle.

Methods to determine if an image contains a person are known in the art and include those taught in “Bag of Soft Biometrics for Person Identification” (Dantcheva, Antitza, Carmelo Velardo, Angela Da Angelo, and Jean-Luc Dugelay. “Bag of Soft Biometrics for Person Identification.” Multimedia Tools and Applications 51.2 (2010): 739-77.) and “Full-body Person Recognition System” (Nakajima, Chikahito, Massimiliano Pontil, Bernd Heisele, and Tomaso Poggio. “Full-body Person Recognition System.” Pattern Recognition 36.9 (2003): 1997-2006), which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

If the plurality of images are determined to not contain a person, no further processing is required 815, and the plurality of images are saved to the storage 320. If the plurality of images are determined to contain a person, it is determined if an active emergency alert 820 has been received from the emergency services provider 130 that identifies a person. The active emergency alert may be received over the real time communication channel 105 or the short range communication channel 290. In addition, the active emergency alert may be directly received by the vehicle or indirectly received via database server 400. If there is not an active emergency alert that identifies a person, no further processing is required 815, and the plurality of images are saved to the storage 320. If there is an active emergency alert that specifies a person, a course analysis of the plurality of images is performed 825 to determine if the person contained in the images matches the person specified in the active emergency alert.

For example, the active emergency alert may specify a Michael Smith, a 25 year old white male who is 6 feet tall and weighing 280 pounds. The coarse analysis may generate a match for any white male that is between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet 2 inches. If the coarse analysis does not match the vehicle specified in the active alert, no further processing is required 815 and the plurality of images are saved to the storage 320. If the coarse analysis does match the vehicle specified in the active alert, the plurality of images are transmitted 830 to the database server 400 over the real time wireless channel 105 for additional analysis. In addition to the plurality of images, the transmitted data may include geo location data and data from any of the sensors 150. Additionally, the plurality of images may be directly transmitted to the emergency services provider 130 over the real time communication channel 105.

FIG. 9 shows a block diagram for a method of locating a vehicle implemented in the database server 400. Data is received 905 from the plurality of vehicles 110 a . . . 110 n over the real time communication interface 105 and the short range communication interface 290. The data may be received via communication interface 430. In addition to the plurality of images, the received data may include geolocation data and data from any of the sensors 150. The received data is then compared to determine if the data matches an active alert 910. If the data does not match an active alert, the received data is aggregated 915 based on the time in which the data is recorded by the array of vehicles 110 a . . . 110 n and the geolocation information. The aggregated data is then compared to determine if the aggregated data matches any active alert 920. For example, an individual vehicle may not be able to positively identify a particular person or a particular vehicle. However, once data is collected from multiple vehicles, an identification may be possible.

Methods for identifying a person based on aggregated data are known in the art and include such methods as taught in “Viewpoint Invariant Human Re-Identification in Camera Networks Using Pose Priors and Subject-Discriminative Features.” (Wu, Ziyan, Yang Li, and Richard J. Radke. “Viewpoint Invariant Human Re-Identification in Camera Networks Using Pose Priors and Subject-Discriminative Features.” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 37.5 (2015): 1095-108.) and “Person Tracking and Reidentification: Introducing Panoramic Appearance Map (PAM) for Feature Representation” (Gandhi, Tarak, and Mohan Manubhai Trivedi. “Person Tracking and Reidentification: Introducing Panoramic Appearance Map (PAM) for Feature Representation.” Machine Vision and Applications 18.3-4 (2007): 207-220.), which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Methods for identifying a vehicle based on aggregated data are known in the art and include such methods as taught in “Vehicle Identification between Non-overlapping Cameras without Direct Feature Matching” (Shan, Ying, H. s. Sawhney, and R. Kumar. “Vehicle Identification between Non-overlapping Cameras without Direct Feature Matching.” Tenth IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV'05) Volume 1 (2005): n. pag) and “Intelligent Multi-camera Video Surveillance: A Review.” (Wang, Xiaogang. “Intelligent Multi-camera Video Surveillance: A Review.” Pattern Recognition Letters 34.1 (2013): 3-19), which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

If the aggregated data matches an active emergency alert, the matching aggregated data is transmitted 925 to the emergency services provider 130. The data may be transmitted using communication interface 420. If the aggregated data does not match an active alert, the aggregated data may be stored 945 in storage 420.

If the received data matches an active alert 910, an additional analysis of the received data may be performed 930. For instance, if the emergency services alert is for a person, the additional analysis 930 may include performing facial recognition.

Methods of performing facial recognition are known in the art and include such methods as taught in “Bayesian face recognition” (Moghaddam, Baback, Tony Jebara, and Alex Pentland. “Bayesian face recognition.” Pattern Recognition 33.11 (2000): 1771-1782.), which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Similarly, if the alert specifies a vehicle, the additional analysis 930 may include license plate recognition or identify additional characteristics of the vehicle for such attributes as dents.

Methods of performing vehicle identification are known in the art and include the methods taught in “Automatic vehicle identification by plate recognition” (Ozbay, Serkan, and Ergun Ercelebi. “Automatic vehicle identification by plate recognition.” World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 9.41 (2005): 222-225.), and “Learning-based spatio-temporal vehicle tracking and indexing for transportation multimedia database systems” (Chen, Shu-Ching, et al. “Learning-based spatio-temporal vehicle tracking and indexing for transportation multimedia database systems.” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems 4.3 (2003): 154-167.), which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Based on the additional analysis, it is determined 935 if the received data still matches the active emergency alert. If the additional analysis indicates that the received data no longer matches the active alert, the received data may be stored 945 in storage 420. If the received data still matches an active emergency alert, the matching aggregated data is transmitted 945 to the emergency services provider 130. The data may be transmitted using communication interface 420.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of a vehicle practicing an embodiment of the present disclosure. Person 1030A is located within Bubble of Vision 1015 of vehicle 1010. Since person 1030A is with the Bubble of Vision 1015, the sensors 150 will be able to gather data about person 1030A. The data acquired by the sensors 150 may be used to determine if person 1030A matches the pedestrian specified in an active emergency alert. Pedestrian 1030B is located outside the Bubble of Vision 1015, and therefore the sensors 150 would be unable to gather data on person 1030B, and the system would be unable to determine if person 1030B matched the specified person. Similarly, vehicles 1020A and 1020B are located within Bubble of Vision 1015. As a result, the sensors 150 would be able to collect data on 1020A and 1020B. Then once the data was collected, the system would be able to determine if 1020A and 1020B match the vehicle specified in an active emergency alert.

Although features and elements are described above in particular combinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with the other features and elements. In addition, any of the steps described above may be automatically performed by either the VC 300 or database server 400.

Furthermore, the methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronic signals (transmitted over wired or wireless connections) and non-transitory computer-readable storage media. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media, such as internal hard disks and

removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatile disks (DVDs). 

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for locating objects specified in an emergency alert, the apparatus comprising: one or more imagers, each imager having a respective bubble of vision, a real time communication interface, a short range communication interface, a geo locating system to determine a location of a vehicle at a selected point in time; and a vehicle computer communicatively coupled to the one or more imagers, the geo locating system, the real time communication interface, and the short range communication interface; wherein the vehicle computer: acquires a plurality of images from the one or more imagers, determines if the plurality of images contain another vehicle, determines if an active alert has been received via the real time communication interface, when the plurality of images contain the another vehicle and the active alert has been received via the real time communication interface, selectively transmits via the real time communication interface the plurality of images to a database server based on a vehicle analysis, and when the plurality of images contain the another vehicle and the active alert has not been received via the real time communication interface, stores the plurality of images in a storage medium of the vehicle.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein first and second imagers have first and second bubbles of vision, wherein the first and second bubbles of vision overlap and have different ranges to provide multiple views and perspective of an imaged object, and wherein the vehicle computer further: selectively transmits, via the short range communication interface and upon detecting that the short range communication interface is connected to the Internet, the plurality of images stored in the storage medium of the vehicle to the database server.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the database server: receives a plurality of images acquired by other vehicles, each of the plurality of images acquired by the other vehicles having temporal and geo location information associated therewith, aggregates the plurality of images acquired by the other vehicles with the plurality of images transmitted via the short range communication interface based on the temporal and geo location information to form aggregated data, performs an additional analysis on the aggregated data, determines, based on the additional analysis, whether the another vehicle in at least a portion of the aggregated data matches a particular vehicle identified in a current active alert, and selectively transmits the at least a portion of the aggregated data to an emergency services provider based on the additional analysis and determination.
 4. A method for locating objects specified in an emergency alert, the method comprising: acquiring, by a vehicle, a plurality of images from one or more imagers, each imager having a respective bubble of vision determining, by the vehicle, if the plurality of images contain another vehicle, determining, by the vehicle, if an active alert has been received via a real time communication interface of the vehicle, and selectively transmitting, by the vehicle when the plurality of images contain the another vehicle and the active alert has been received via the real time communication interface, via the real time communication interface, the plurality of images to a database server based on a vehicle analysis, and storing, by the vehicle when the plurality of images contain the another vehicle and the active alert has not been received via the real time communication interface, the plurality of images in a storage medium of the vehicle.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein first and second imagers have first and second bubbles of vision, wherein the first and second bubbles of vision overlap and have different ranges to provide multiple views and perspective of an imaged object, and further comprising: selectively transmitting, via a short range communication interface of the vehicle and upon detecting that the short range communication interface is connected to the Internet, the plurality of images stored in the storage medium of the vehicle to the database server.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: receiving, by the database server, a plurality of images acquired by other vehicles, each of the plurality of images acquired by the other vehicles having temporal and geo location information associated therewith, aggregating, by the database server, the plurality of images acquired by the other vehicles with the plurality of images transmitted via the short range communication interface based on the temporal and geo location information to form aggregated data, performing, by the database server, an additional analysis on the aggregated data, determining, by the database server based on the additional analysis, whether the another vehicle in at least a portion of the aggregated data matches a particular vehicle identified in a current active alert, and selectively transmitting, by the database server, the at least a portion of the aggregated data to an emergency services provider based on the additional analysis and determination.
 7. A system for locating objects specified in an emergency alert, the system comprising: a database server communicatively coupled to a plurality of vehicles, wherein the database server includes: a communication interface, a memory, a storage, and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the storage, and the communication interface; wherein the processor of the database server: receives, via the communication interface, a plurality of images from the plurality of vehicles, wherein the plurality of images include images acquired by one or more imagers of each of the vehicles in the plurality of vehicles, aggregates the plurality of images based on geo location information and temporal information provided by the plurality of vehicles to form aggregated data, receives, from an emergency services provider, an active alert including an identity of a particular vehicle, and wherein the identity of the particular vehicle in the plurality of images is not identifiable by any single vehicle in the plurality of vehicles, analyzes, based on the identity of the particular vehicle in the active alert, the aggregated data to determine if the aggregated data includes the particular vehicle identified in the active alert received, and selectively alerts the emergency service provider based on a result of the analysis.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein each vehicle of the plurality of vehicles further: store, in a storage medium of each vehicle when the active alert is not received, the plurality of images including the images acquired by the one or more imagers of each vehicle; and selectively transmit, via a short range communication interface of each vehicle and upon detecting that the short range communication interface of each vehicle is connected to the Internet, the plurality of images from the storage medium of each vehicle to the database server.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the database server further: performs an additional analysis on the plurality of images on a condition that the plurality of images contain a person and the active alert specifies a particular person, and selectively transmits the plurality of images to the emergency services provider based on the additional analysis.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the additional analysis includes facial recognition.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of vehicles comprise first and second vehicles having imagers with first and second bubbles of vision, respectively, wherein the particular vehicle is simultaneously within each of the first and second bubbles of vision, and wherein first and second images provided by the imagers of the first and second vehicles, respectively, comprise different views of the object. 